Vanderhoosen River, Vernon, CT

   I have been looking forward to sharing the Story Behind this month’s image since I first learned of the area from a former co-worker. Gerardo, a talented artist in his own right posted the cell phone capture seen below that I grabbed from his FaceBook feed. I first saw the FaceBook post back on January 20th, the lure of the diagonals and receding triangles was simply too enticing to wait for warmer weather. Gerardo had shared with me great directions and I made the 10 minute walk to find this location and make this month’s image on January 28th. Following Gerardo’s cell phone shot is a cell phone shot of my camera setup for this image.

   Since my first encounter with the view camera I have been drawn to the flexibilities of the view camera, in the beginning, the challenges of understanding its capabilities seemed daunting. One of the most alluring features of the view camera is the image on the ground glass (back of the camera viewing area) is upside down, and reversed. This is no different than the manner in which the eye processes anything visual; it is the brain that correctly orients what the eye sees. The upside down, and reversed image allows a more contemplative response to what the camera lens sees, as one famous photographer observed, “it’s not what it is, it’s how everything relates to one another”.

  Contrasting the Eye and Camera lens, they are in their most basic form just alike, each is an adjustable mechanism to focus a visual image.  Our Brain and Film share similar relationships, in that, they receive and record what the Eye / Lens sees. The Lens / Film combination falls far short of the Eye / Brain in one critical difference, the eye can refocus so quickly we almost never see anything as out of focus. The Camera and Lens can only focus on one critical area. Fortunately, the View Camera has capabilities that fixed plane cameras do not to alter the plane of sharp focus.

   The View Camera is actually quite a simple machine, its nothing more than a box with an adjustable bellows. The bellows is in between the front and back standards and ensures the film is protected from all light except what allowed through the lens. Fixed plane cameras, including all 35mm cameras and medium format cameras, such as the Hassleblad operate on the universal principle that “critical focus” happens at only one exact relationship of the film’s distance to the subject, these relationships are brought into sharp focus by a lens. Depth of field, that which is considered “acceptable sharpness” in front of, and behind the point of critical focus is dictated by the f-stop used @ the time of exposure. The higher the f-stop, (smaller the lens aperture / opening) the more near and far of the photograph will appear sharp. Depth of field is usually considered to be 1/3rd in front, and 2/3rds behind the point of critical focus.

   The View Camera’s powerful advantage over fixed plane cameras is best seen in a photo of my camera illustrating the rear standard (the film sits here) and the front standard (what holds a removable lens). Both the front and rear standards can be moved independently of one another in any of 6 separate directions, as seen by the Red arrows. The type of imagery I gravitate too, this type camera is indispensable. Understanding how all these camera movements in conjunction with one another may seem daunting at first. Similar to riding a bike, a few scraps at first, once mastered never forgotten!! Putting them into practice, there are only a few fundamental concepts at play. 

   It’s important to note, my camera comes out of the backpack with the front and rear standards zeroed-out and parallel, as any fixed plane camera. The image seen in this month’s Story was hopelessly out-of-focus prior to any camera adjustments. No amount of f-stop correction would produce a useable photograph. As an FYI, the 210mm lens on my 5×7 camera is a normal focal length for the 5×7 format. It’s depth of focus is no different than a 210mm lens on a 35mm camera. Linked here is a Vanderhoosen River on-location video of the actual shoot on my YouTube channel illustrating what I did to gain acceptable focus in this month’s image. Hopefully, the video and text will help to not only clarify, but also allow the lay person to understand so many of the photographs I show are simply not possible with fixed focus cameras.

   #1. The amount of movements seen in the photograph of my camera are never used, the lens simply does not have that type of covering power, together with, much less movement is actually needed to make significant focus corrections. #2. If the Length, Width and Depth of your composition resembles the shape of a Cube, then the only tool you have to gain “depth of focus” is stopping the lens down by way of f-stops. #3. When your composition begins to take on the shape of a rectangle, then the view camera, and it’s movements can begin to alter the “plane of acceptable” sharpness. #4. The View Camera is not a magician, by gaining focus in one area, then another area now has reduced focus, most times these areas are perpendicular to one another. #5. To accomplish an increase in focus, “tipping the lens towards the longest plane” of the rectangle, OR, “tipping the film back away from the longest plane” of the rectangle accomplishes identical corrections, see the positions of the front and rear planes in the above photo. #6. The amount of movement is directly tied to the focal length of the lens in use, i.e. the longer the lens, the more obvious the change in relationship to the fixed position is needed for the same correction. #7. Camera movements will always be biasing relationships in the direction of the rectangular composition in conjunction with the f-stop feature of the lens in use. For an in-depth explanation and illustrations, see my free YouTube channel and video series on View Camera Movements

   This month’s image and back story is approaching the limits of altering the plane of focus. There is a fundamental principle involved in controlling the area of acceptable focus in play called the Scheimpflug Principle. An explanation is linked here, however, there is no need to explain, other than the fact, if you gain in one area of acceptable focus, you will loose in another area of acceptable focus. Controlling those areas into manageable relationships is where the View Camera can successfully customize the plane of focus to produce acceptably focused subject matter that no other type of camera can.

   To summarize how this month’s image was accomplished. I basically, “moved / swung” the rear / film standard away from the closest tree. That correction would allow both very close trees and pine needles to be in relatively sharp focus. However, gaining relatively sharp focus from very near to very far required “tipping” the back away from the ground directly at my feet. In a simple sense, I took some of the horizontal focus and applied it to the very close trees in the composition. I took some of the vertical focus and applied it towards the far portion of the composition. So, as strange as it may seem, when all the corrections were made to the camera, there was still nothing on the ground glass (film plane) that appeared totally sharp. However, the compound movements I used brought all the areas of the composition into a “relative & manageable” state of unsharpness. Now, stopping lens down by way of f-stops would yield an acceptably sharp image across the entire composition!! Considering the near pine needles are 4-5 feet from the camera while the brook and tress are nearly 100 feet or more from the camera, it’s quite an accomplishment.